Personal Blog of celebrated blogger and author of three books, Roma Gupta Sinha who has been felicitated with numerous awards and recognition for her candid thought-provoking writings including the coveted 'Woman of the Year 2015' and 'Planet Pride's Award 2018'

headr

Pages

Monday, 18 April 2016

A peep into Cochlear™ and Brett Lee's United Endeavor to confer hearing impaired a Vital chance to Hear

Mum's the word for me for the last couple of years since I quit my Swedish Job, petrified by my kiddo's nanny's behavior... I can no longer entrust my boy to anyone else and thus I use my decade long experience by only accepting assignments which give me the liberty to work from home and move out only if it's something very "Close to my Heart" ️

This was precisely the reason that, when I came to know that the Australian Giant Cochlear™ and the Cricket Legend Brett Lee are on a wonderful mission to aid the hearing impaired kids and adults to be able to hear and thus add sounds of life to their world, I could not contain myself from joining and contributing in my own small way...

We, the Pune Bloggers spent a day with Cochlear™ India, their Global Hearing Ambassador Brett Lee and ENT Experts assimilating the need and benefits of the #SoundsofCricket Campaign and here I bring to you my insights on how it can go a long way in imparting the vital sense of hearing to those who have known nothing but silence all through their lives! The more I heard them, the more I realized, how much it meant for our little ones and couldn't stop at taking occasional glances at my little boy who had accompanied me to this eye opener session of a lifetime.

This noble mission primarily focuses on creating awareness about complete or partial hearing loss which can be screened right at the time of birth...The earlier we detect it, and give proper treatment to it, better are the chances of the recipient getting to lead a normal life like us...Unfortunately, in India there is no compulsory neonatal hearing test and thus many children born without the hearing ability go unnoticed...but we can definitely ask for it so that right treatment can be given at the right time...we can't ignore the fact that a baby's learning ability is at its peak in the initial years and hearing plays a crucial role in his/her understanding of the world...Spread the word folks to as many new parents as you can, our little efforts can mean a life to someone...."Avaaz Uthaao, Taaki Sabko Sunaai De..." is what the Global Hearing Ambassador Brett Lee tells everyone as he truly believes that every child deserves to hear!

Ok... So now let me come to the second stage...if you didn't screen your child at birth but feel that he's not responding to your call repeatedly or watches TV at an exceptionally loud volume and gradually moves towards it or if there is a mention of him not listening from his teacher...please don't choose to ignore it... I understand it is subjective but there is no harm ruling out the possibility, so do get him/her tested!

The same applies to us young adults, as well who at the moment ignore our inability to listen low sounds which aggravates with age and then we shun the idea of testing ourselves and getting proper help , treating it as a repercussion of being old! No don't do that ! You must be able to hear the excited loud #SoundsOfCricket and enjoy the adrenaline rush till your last breath.

In the words of Dr. Neelam Vaidhya, one of the best E&T surgeons in India, " Hearing Tests are not very expensive and if diagnosed as hearing impaired, you may not always require an implant. "Normally, initially they try to enhance the hearing ability with the help of hearing aids and under circumstances that this does not help, they advise getting a Cochlear™ implant. Now, what's a Cochlear™ implant ? In most simple terms, it is a surgical implant of a small device in your ear, which stimulates the hearing nerve and aids one to hear. The implanted device is the hardware part of the mechanism, while the software is contained in a Bluetooth lookalike device worn over the ear...A combination of the two imparts the precious hearing ability to the needy after getting proper training post the surgery. This surgery is slightly expensive but if you make up your mind and money is the only limitation, ways to raise the funds can be streamed out.

Cochlear™ Limited has been globally leading all the technological advancements in this field for the past thirty years. There are constant technological upgrades like Cochlear™ Nucleus® 6 ...Does that mean one has to undergo a surgery for every new upgrade of technology? No, it's only the external wireless device that is worn on the ear that upgrades...The latest one mentioned above even comes with a sheath called Nucleus® Aqua+ that enables the one wearing them, to enjoy water sports… Isn't that truly awesome.

This technology has benefited so many and hearing about their lovely stories and their fight to overcome such a battle literally gives me goosebumps...however to see them back to life, happy and interacting is so uplifting… Here are the pics of some of the Cochlear™ recipients and I could not contain my heart's desire to share them with you.

The #SoundsofCricket Campaign precisely aims at blessing each one with the ability to hear by spreading as much awareness as possible even to the remotest corners of the world, and who else could compliment Cochlear™'s noble intentions in this than the master of cricket Brett Lee himself, who resides in all our hearts!

Through the medium of this post, we thus once again, earnestly request each one of you to aid us spread awareness about neonatal and adult hearing tests and the advanced treatments available for them so that we can bring the Sounds Of Cricket and Life to everyone.